Process of making sodium amalgam.



TUNTTEE STaTEs PATENT lTlCEt EUGENE B. SMART, OF FLORENCE, COLORADO.

PROCESS OF MAKlNG SODIUM AMALGAIVI.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 689,926, dated December 1901.

Application filed March 5, 1901. Serial No. 49,952. (No specimens.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, EUGENE B. SMART, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Florence, in the county of Fremont and State of Colorado, have invented a new and Improved Process of Making Sodium Amalgam, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to a process for making sodium amalgam in large quantities. To this end I proceed as follows: In a porcelain or agate ware vessel I melt some paraffin, heatingit to a temperature of 130 centigrade. Then I add one part, by weight, of metallic sodium and keep the mixture at a temperature of 130 centigrade until all the sodium is melted and forms soft globules. The amount of paraffin should be sufficient to cover the sodium when both are melted. Into the melted mixture of paraffin and sodium I then pour fifty-three parts, by weight, of mercury. The sodium and mercury being heavier stay at the bottom, While the paraffin floats at the top. Thereupon the melted paraffin is decanted, and the mercury and sodium left in the vessel are stirred continually until the amalgam is cool. The resulting product is sodium amalgam, adapted for any use to which such amalgam is put, but particularly for the extraction of precious metals. Potassium amalgam may be made in the same manner.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The process of making an amalgam of an alkali metal, which consists in heating paraffiu to a temperature sufficient to melt the same and the alkali metal, then adding the metal to the melted paraffin and continuing the heat until all the metal is melted, the amount of paraffin employed being suflicient to cover the metal when both are melted, then adding mercury to the melted mixture of paraffin and the metal, and then decanting the paraffin.

2. The process of making an amalgam of an alkali metal, which consists in placing the metal in melted paraffin until the metal is melted, then adding mercury, then decanting the paraffin, and finally stirring the mercury and alkali metal while allowing them to cool.

3. The method of making sodium amalgam, which consists in heating paraffin to a temperature of about 130 centigrade, then adding metallic sodium to the melted paraffin, continuing to heat until the metal is melted, then adding mercury, and finally decanting the paraffin.

4. The method of making sodium amalgam, which consists in heating paraflin to a temperature of about 130 centigrade, then adding thereto one part (by weight) of metallic sodium, continuing to heat until the metal is melted, then adding fifty three parts (by weight) of mercury, then decanting the paraffin, and finally stirring the mercury and sodium amalgam while allowing it to cool.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EUGENE B. SMART.

WVitnesses:

HENRY K. GORDON, J AS. MONTGOMERY. 

